


it's blue, the feeling i got

by rachelwrites



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24082690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachelwrites/pseuds/rachelwrites
Summary: rose has a tendency to say "i love you", and the doctor has a tendency to internalize it.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	it's blue, the feeling i got

**Author's Note:**

> hey everyone! so due to covid complications i’m out of a job for the summer, and while i’m looking i’ve opened fic commissions. [here’s the link to my tumblr post talking about it](https://behradtarazi.tumblr.com/post/617147495585398784/im-opening-fic-commissions-please-signal-boost), and please talk to me here or there if you’e interesting! rates are flexible and honestly anything helps a lot. thank you so much and enjoy! :)

The Doctor knows that he shouldn’t expect anything back from her. He’s learned not to.

She’s young, first of all. His wonderful pink and yellow human is scarcely 19, making him roughly 45 times her age, with the baggage to prove it. He had watched worlds burn and seen more in the past year than she had seen in her entire life.

But it hadn’t stopped him from loving her. Not even a little bit.

Rose is more giving with her affection than anyone he’s ever known. The 21st century has brought a new comfort to women and allowed them to be more open that they’d ever been before. The Doctor is grateful for this for many reasons: it’s one of the reason’s he’s able to hold her hand as much as he does. It’s why they can snuggle in one loveseat on the TARDIS as he reads to her and she pretends to pay attention. It means she can say “I love you” to him as much as she wants.

Except that one’s becoming sort of an issue.

The first time she said “I love you,” was after their “first date” as she jokingly called it. He was Northern and she was new to time and space travel, they watched the earth blow up, and then he took her for chips. He was taken with her already, this fantastic woman who’d told him she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

She’d finished her chips before him, and he’d absentmindedly poured half of what he had left into her bowl. “Ah, brilliant,” she’d said, “I love you.” He’d almost choked on the chip he was eating, but swallowed it down with no suspicion.

Rose says “I love you” a lot. Probably because, despite their disagreements, a childhood with Jackie had been an affectionate one. She says I love you when he gets her a cup of tea and when he breaks her out of alien prison.

The Doctor loved it when Rose told him she loved him. It made his hearts beat a little faster and he smiled a little bigger. It gave him the biggest confidence boost, because it meant the one thing he believed in believed in him back. It made him buzz, like he was high on regeneration energy. Her “I love yous” made him feel unstoppable and indomitable, if just for a moment.

The Doctor also hated when Rose told him she loved him, because immediately after it was met with the harsh reminder that she didn’t really mean it.

Well, she didn’t mean it the way he wanted her to.

The Doctor had been all in on Rose, since around Victorian England. He loved her in a way he hadn’t felt in a while. Rose… didn’t feel the same way. How could she? She was wonderful and he was screwed up and he didn’t want to put the weight of his whole existence on her. He couldn’t

But he could still appreciate from afar. The way her tongue rested between her teeth when she smiled, the way her hair bounced when she was running around an alien market or a historical castle. She was beautiful and smart and kind – was it any surprise that he was completely gone on her?

He let his eyes close shut and relaxed back into his chair in the library. He was tired for sure, as today had seen a visit to the Sarkosian Galaxy turn wrong faster than usual. A lot of running and tight situations had made his back sore, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep.

As he was drifting off, he heard footsteps creeping into the room. _Rose_ , he thought. She began to tip-toe, probably having seen him dozing off, and set to the cup of chamomile she had made for him on the side table with just a little clink. “Goodnight Doctor,” she said. After a little pause, Rose leaned in, brushing her lips ever so slightly against his forehead before pulling back. “I love you.”

As she left, a smile ghosted across the Doctor’s face.

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment or kudos to show me you care! holla at me on tumblr [@behradtarazi](%E2%80%9Cbehradtarazi.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D)


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